Lower Pottsgrove man among 22 honored as Carnegie Heroes

Kurt Buchler, Sarah Pecharo and Nicole Jordan are honored at a Pottstown Borough Council meeting for assisting Kaitlyn Fadely, who was attacked by three dogs in Pottstown in March 2013. Former Pottstown Mayor Bonnie Heath reads the proclamation honoring them. (Mercury file photo/Evan Brandt)

PITTSBURGH — Kurt Buchler of Lower Pottsgrove has been honored with a Carnegie Hero Medal for his heroic efforts last March to save a 19-year-old woman from an attack by three dogs.

Buchler, a 44-year-old bartender, wound up being hospitalized for six days and missed three months’ work after he helped Kaitlyn Fadely of Royersford.

Fadely, who was visiting her former boyfriend in the 600 block of Wilson Street in Pottstown on March 15, 2013, was attacked by the three dogs in the home. She ran outside where Sarah Pecharo of Schwenksville was driving by and pulled over and distracted the dogs, whereupon they came after her.

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Kurt Buchler of Foxtail Drive in Lower Pottsgrove was at the YMCA on North Adams Street when he heard the commotion and ran over to help.

Buchler tried to distract the dogs and ran a short distance to direct their attention to him and away from Pecharo.

He was successful, but they caught up to him and began to attack him.

That’s when Franklin Street resident Nicole Jordan saw what was happening and drover her car toward the dogs, honking her horn, and scaring them off, according to previous reports in The Mercury.

The three dogs were later euthanized.

Buchler is one of 22 people who were honored today with the medals and cash awards from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Five of those honored for various rescue attempts died in the process, so their families will receive the awards in their name.

Also honored are two employees who disarmed and subdued a shoplifter who fatally shot a police officer at a Texas Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart employees Lincoln LeMere and Archie Jordy were honored less than a month after the man they subdued, Brandon Daniel, 26, was sentenced to death for shooting Officer Jaime Padron on April 6, 2012, in Austin, Texas.

LeMere, 35, of Pflugerville, the store’s retail manager, Jordy, his 42-year-old assistant, of Round Rock, intervened after the officer tackled Daniel as he was running out of the store.

Daniel pulled a gun and shot the officer twice before the employees were able to help.

LeMere reportedly pinned Daniel to the floor, while Jordy grabbed for the gun, which Daniel was able to fire once more — striking the ceiling — before Jordy was able to step on the suspect’s hand to make him release the weapon. Jordy then called for help over the stricken officer’s radio while LeMere held Daniel down until other officers arrived.

A jury took only an hour to return a guilty verdict Feb. 21, then sentenced Daniel to death a week later after prosecutors presented evidence that Daniel was overhead laughing by witnesses, who also heard him say, “I killed a cop.”

The Carnegie Hero awards are named for the Pittsburgh industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired by stories of heroism during a coal mine disaster near Pittsburgh that killed 181 people, including a miner and engineer who died trying to rescue others.

The commission investigates stories of heroism and awards medals and cash grant several times a year. The commission has given away more than $36 million to 9,675 awardees or their families since its inception in 1904.

Winners of Carnegie Hero medals awarded Wednesday:

• Lincoln LeMere, 35, of Pflugerville, Texas, and Archie Jordy, 42, of Round Rock, Texas, subdued a shoplifter who fatally shot a police officer in Austin, Texas in April 2012.

• Kyle Robert Hardman, 55, of Barbourville, Ky., died attempting to save several people from drowning in Sauget, Ill., in June 2012.

• Jarvise Shelton, 39, of Villa Ridge, Ill., helped rescue the same people from drowning in Sauget, Ill., in June 2012.

• Keith Smedema, 53, of Indianapolis, saved a woman from drowning in the White River in Indianapolis in February 2013.

• Keno Goode Sr., 62, of San Carlos, Ariz., saved a young girl from drowning after she was stranded by rising waters from heavy rain in Sevenmile, Wash., in September 2012.

• Christopher Allen Staley, 22, of Newburg, Md., died trying to save a friend from drowning in the Wicomico River in Mechanicsville, Md., in August 2011.

• Justin Tak Chan, 34 of Burnaby, B.C., died trying to save a 31-year-old woman from drowning in the Cheakamus River in Whistler, B.C., in August 2011.

• Michael Jerome Cade, 45, of Enid, Okla., rescued a woman from being assaulted by an armed man, who shot Cade in the process, while Henry McHenry, 39, of Houston, Texas, rescued Cade from the armed suspect in Houston, in May 2013.

• Steven L. Rogge, 40, of Farmington, N.M., rescued a 12-year-old boy from drowning in the Animas River in Farmington in April 2013.

• Edward J. Garglinghouse, 44, of Boynton Beach, Fla., died helping rescue two people from drowning in the surf at Palm Beach Shores, Fla., in February 2013.

• Drew James Loftus, 22, of San Diego, and Austin Jeffrey Mann, 23, of Carlsbad, Calif., saved a woman from being struck by traffic after her car overturned on an interstate highway in Encinitas, Calif., in March 2013.

• Brian Patrick Joyce, 21, and his brother, Steven Edward Joyce Jr., 23, of Littleton, Mass., saved a couple from burning when their vehicle crashed in Newton, Mass., in July 2012.

• Kurt T. Buchler, 44, of Lower Pottsgrove, Pa., saved a woman from being attacked by three dogs, during which he was attacked himself, in Pottstown, Pa., in March 2013.

• Virginia R. Grogan, 54, of Gloucester, Va., died trying to save her three young grandsons when their home caught fire in Gloucester, in January 2013.

• Matthew P. Schons, 25, of Tracy, Minn., rescued an infant girl from his neighbor’s burning house in September 2012.

• Christopher Jon Ihle, 38, of Ames, Iowa, saved an elderly couple from being struck by a train when their car stalled on a railroad crossing in Ames in July 2013.

• Roger Costa, 39, of Tustin, Calif., was scarred when he tried to rescue a woman from a burning apartment in November 2012.

• Jason Austin Cole, 16, of Lonoke, Ark., saved a boy when he fell through the ice in a culvert in Spirit Lake, Idaho, in January 2013.